Project description:Most genes are transcribed from multiple transcription start sites (TSSs), defined as alternative TSSs, which are highly regulated and can lead to various gene regulatory outcomes including changes in translation efficiency and protein isoforms. Transcription factors and chromatin regulators control alternative TSS selection. DNA supercoiling affects multiple aspects of transcription including transcription initiation. However, its regulatory effect on genes with multiple TSSs is not known. Here we investigated how DNA supercoiling impacts alternative TSS usage in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We depleted topoisomerases during early meiosis, where alternative TSS usage is prevalent, and applied an improved TSS sequencing protocol. We show that supercoiling affects alternative TSS usage of almost 600 genes. Increased alternative and aberrant TSS usage were observed near and within open reading frames, likely resulting from transcription-induced supercoiling originating from upstream alternative TSSs. DNA supercoiling had the greatest impact on genes with a dominant alternative TSS, significant spacing between alternative TSSs, and greater overall length. Our results establish that DNA supercoiling release during transcription is critical for correct TSS selection.
Project description:This study was designed to investigate DNA supercoiling across the human genome and to understand how supercoiling domains impact on higher levels of genome organisation. DNA supercoiling is an inherent consequence of twisting DNA and is critical for regulating gene expression and DNA replication. However, DNA supercoiling at a genomic scale in human cells is uncharacterized. To map supercoiling we used biotinylated-trimethylpsoralen as a DNA structure probe to show the genome is organized into supercoiling domains. Domains are formed and remodeled by RNA polymerase and topoisomerase activities and are flanked by GC-AT boundaries and CTCF binding sites. Under-wound domains are transcriptionally active, enriched in topoisomerase I, M-bM-^@M-^\openM-bM-^@M-^] chromatin fibers and DNaseI sites, but are depleted of topoisomerase II. Furthermore DNA supercoiling impacts on additional levels of chromatin compaction as under-wound domains are cytologically decondensed, topologically constrained, and decompacted by transcription of short RNAs. We suggest that supercoiling domains create a topological environment that facilitates gene activation providing an evolutionary purpose for clustering genes along chromosomes. The gene transcription of 3 independent biological replicates were investigated
Project description:This study was designed to investigate DNA supercoiling across the human genome and to understand how supercoiling domains impact on higher levels of genome organisation. DNA supercoiling is an inherent consequence of twisting DNA and is critical for regulating gene expression and DNA replication. However, DNA supercoiling at a genomic scale in human cells is uncharacterized. To map supercoiling we used biotinylated-trimethylpsoralen as a DNA structure probe to show the genome is organized into supercoiling domains. Domains are formed and remodeled by RNA polymerase and topoisomerase activities and are flanked by GC-AT boundaries and CTCF binding sites. Under-wound domains are transcriptionally active, enriched in topoisomerase I, M-bM-^@M-^\openM-bM-^@M-^] chromatin fibers and DNaseI sites, but are depleted of topoisomerase II. Furthermore DNA supercoiling impacts on additional levels of chromatin compaction as under-wound domains are cytologically decondensed, topologically constrained, and decompacted by transcription of short RNAs. We suggest that supercoiling domains create a topological environment that facilitates gene activation providing an evolutionary purpose for clustering genes along chromosomes. The binding of bTMP, as a reporter for DNA supercoiling, was investigated in RPE1 cells. Experiments were biological replicates
Project description:This study was designed to investigate DNA supercoiling across the human genome and to understand how supercoiling domains impact on higher levels of genome organisation. DNA supercoiling is an inherent consequence of twisting DNA and is critical for regulating gene expression and DNA replication. However, DNA supercoiling at a genomic scale in human cells is uncharacterized. To map supercoiling we used biotinylated-trimethylpsoralen as a DNA structure probe to show the genome is organized into supercoiling domains. Domains are formed and remodeled by RNA polymerase and topoisomerase activities and are flanked by GC-AT boundaries and CTCF binding sites. Under-wound domains are transcriptionally active, enriched in topoisomerase I, M-bM-^@M-^\openM-bM-^@M-^] chromatin fibers and DNaseI sites, but are depleted of topoisomerase II. Furthermore DNA supercoiling impacts on additional levels of chromatin compaction as under-wound domains are cytologically decondensed, topologically constrained, and decompacted by transcription of short RNAs. We suggest that supercoiling domains create a topological environment that facilitates gene activation providing an evolutionary purpose for clustering genes along chromosomes. The binding of bTMP, as a reporter for DNA supercoiling, was investigated in RPE1 cells. Experiments were biological replicates
Project description:This study was designed to investigate DNA supercoiling across the human genome and to understand how supercoiling domains impact on higher levels of genome organisation. DNA supercoiling is an inherent consequence of twisting DNA and is critical for regulating gene expression and DNA replication. However, DNA supercoiling at a genomic scale in human cells is uncharacterized. To map supercoiling we used biotinylated-trimethylpsoralen as a DNA structure probe to show the genome is organized into supercoiling domains. Domains are formed and remodeled by RNA polymerase and topoisomerase activities and are flanked by GC-AT boundaries and CTCF binding sites. Under-wound domains are transcriptionally active, enriched in topoisomerase I, “open” chromatin fibers and DNaseI sites, but are depleted of topoisomerase II. Furthermore DNA supercoiling impacts on additional levels of chromatin compaction as under-wound domains are cytologically decondensed, topologically constrained, and decompacted by transcription of short RNAs. We suggest that supercoiling domains create a topological environment that facilitates gene activation providing an evolutionary purpose for clustering genes along chromosomes.
Project description:This study was designed to investigate DNA supercoiling across the human genome and to understand how supercoiling domains impact on higher levels of genome organisation. DNA supercoiling is an inherent consequence of twisting DNA and is critical for regulating gene expression and DNA replication. However, DNA supercoiling at a genomic scale in human cells is uncharacterized. To map supercoiling we used biotinylated-trimethylpsoralen as a DNA structure probe to show the genome is organized into supercoiling domains. Domains are formed and remodeled by RNA polymerase and topoisomerase activities and are flanked by GC-AT boundaries and CTCF binding sites. Under-wound domains are transcriptionally active, enriched in topoisomerase I, “open” chromatin fibers and DNaseI sites, but are depleted of topoisomerase II. Furthermore DNA supercoiling impacts on additional levels of chromatin compaction as under-wound domains are cytologically decondensed, topologically constrained, and decompacted by transcription of short RNAs. We suggest that supercoiling domains create a topological environment that facilitates gene activation providing an evolutionary purpose for clustering genes along chromosomes.
Project description:This study was designed to investigate DNA supercoiling across the human genome and to understand how supercoiling domains impact on higher levels of genome organisation. DNA supercoiling is an inherent consequence of twisting DNA and is critical for regulating gene expression and DNA replication. However, DNA supercoiling at a genomic scale in human cells is uncharacterized. To map supercoiling we used biotinylated-trimethylpsoralen as a DNA structure probe to show the genome is organized into supercoiling domains. Domains are formed and remodeled by RNA polymerase and topoisomerase activities and are flanked by GC-AT boundaries and CTCF binding sites. Under-wound domains are transcriptionally active, enriched in topoisomerase I, “open” chromatin fibers and DNaseI sites, but are depleted of topoisomerase II. Furthermore DNA supercoiling impacts on additional levels of chromatin compaction as under-wound domains are cytologically decondensed, topologically constrained, and decompacted by transcription of short RNAs. We suggest that supercoiling domains create a topological environment that facilitates gene activation providing an evolutionary purpose for clustering genes along chromosomes.
Project description:Host-directed antivirals remain a promising therapeutic approach for many viruses, including SARS-CoV-2 (CoV2), but development of such interventions requires a deeper understanding of virus-host interactions. Here, we use subcellular proteomics to detect CoV2-induced changes in host protein synthesis networks. We identify molecular chaperones required for CoV2 infection and show that their inhibition reduces infection without major toxicity. We also find that the untranslated regions of CoV2 genomic RNA (gRNA) are inefficient drivers of translation initiation, and that the viral non-structural protein Nsp1 suppresses cellular mRNA but enhances viral gRNA translation. Nsp1 preferentially interacts with pre-initiation complexes containing translation factor EIF1A, which is required for accurate start site selection on CoV2 gRNA. Without EIF1A, more ribosomes initiate translation from an alternative start codon, resulting in lower Orf1 translation and reduced viral titers. Together, our work describes multiple dependencies of CoV2 on host biosynthetic networks and identifies druggable targets for antiviral development.
Project description:Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) is a translation-dependent RNA quality-control pathway targeting transcripts such as messenger RNAs harboring premature stop-codons or short upstream open reading frame (uORFs). Our transcription start sites (TSSs) analysis of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells deficient for RNA degradation pathways revealed that about half of the pervasive transcripts are degraded by NMD, which provides a fail-safe mechanism to remove spurious transcripts that escaped degradation in the nucleus. Moreover, we found that the low specificity of RNA polymerase II TSSs selection generates, for 47% of the expressed genes, NMD-sensitive transcript isoforms carrying uORFs or starting downstream of the ATG START codon. Despite the low abundance of this last category of isoforms, their presence seems to constrain genomic sequences, as suggested by the significant bias against in-frame ATGs specifically found at the beginning of the corresponding genes and reflected by a depletion of methionines in the N-terminus of the encoded proteins.
Project description:Supercoiling impacts DNA replication, transcription, protein binding to DNA, and the three-dimensional organization of chromosomes. However, there are currently no methods to directly interrogate or map positive supercoils, so their distribution in genomes remains unknown. Here, we describe a method based on the chromatin immunoprecipitation of GapR, a bacterial protein that preferentially recognizes overtwisted DNA, for generating high-resolution maps of positive supercoiling. Applying this method to E. coli and S. cerevisiae, we find that positive supercoiling is widespread, associated with transcription, and enriched between convergently-oriented genes, consistent with the ?twin-domain? model of supercoiling. In yeast, we also find positive supercoils associated with centromeres, cohesin binding sites, replication-transcription encounters, and the borders of R-loops (DNA-RNA hybrids). Our results suggest that GapR-seq is a powerful approach that can be applied in any organism to investigate aspects of chromosome structure and organization not accessible by Hi-C or other existing methods.